NASA's investigation of the fiery disintegration of Space
Shuttle Columbia on February 1 has been marked to date by a
degree of candor and responsiveness that contrasts sharply
with the agency's handling of the 1986 Challenger disaster.

"We're still poring over a lot of data," noted Shuttle program
director Roger Dittemore at a remarkably detailed press
briefing on February 2 adding, with uncommon humility, "It's
certainly possible that we'll contradict ourselves from day to
day."

NASA has established a web site to "collect and distribute
information about the crew, the mission, and the ongoing
investigation" here:

"The Freedom of Information Act language [in the Homeland
Security Act] has got to be clarified," said Senator Carl
Levin at the January 17 confirmation hearing of Tom Ridge to
be the new Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
"We are denying the public unclassified information in the
current law which should not be denied to the public."

Furthermore, Senator Levin said, "There could be some very
unintended consequences there, which could give protections
for wrongdoing that threaten our health and environment which
we should not be giving to wrongdoers."

In response, Governor Ridge expressed a willingness to correct
the problem. "It certainly wasn't the intent, I'm sure, of
those who advocated the Freedom of Information Act exemption
to give wrongdoers protection or to protect illegal
activity," he said. "And I'll certainly work with you to
clarify that language." See:

Senator Levin reiterated his concerns on January 22 when the
Senate voted to confirm Gov. Ridge, and added: "I am hopeful
that Governor Ridge will help us to remedy some of the FOIA
problems caused by the Homeland Security Act and restore the
bipartisan compromise worked out in our committee." See:

As tensions between the United States and North Korea have
escalated in connection with the DPRK's nuclear weapons
program, both sides have invoked the U.S.S. Pueblo, the
American intelligence vessel that was attacked and captured by
North Korea in 1968.

In case anyone had forgotten, the North Korean Central News
Agency boasted on January 20 that "The spy ship Pueblo, a
trophy captured by Korean seamen from the U.S. imperialists,
is on display on the river Taedong in Pyongyang." See:

In Washington, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell reintroduced his
resolution from last year demanding the return of the Pueblo
to the U.S. Navy.

"It is important to note that even to this day the capture of
the USS Pueblo has resulted in no reprisal against North
Korea, demonstrating remarkable restraint by the United
States," Senator Campbell said on January 29. See:

Background investigations that are conducted in support of
security clearances at the Department of Defense may soon be
performed by Office of Personnel Management (OPM) instead of
the Pentagon's Defense Security Service.

The Defense Department personnel security program has suffered
for years from huge backlogs, management problems, and related
defects that cumulatively cast doubt on the integrity of the
security clearance system.

Under Secretary of Defense Dov Zakheim explained the move as a
way to eliminate needless redundancy at a February 3 press
briefing:

"We [DOD] do security clearances. The Office of Personnel
Management does security clearances. Sometimes they both do
them at the same time for the same people. I was one. I had
investigators coming to see me within several days of each
other. And they went to their bosses and said, 'Why are we
both wasting the government's money and the taxpayers' money
interviewing the same guy? His address hasn't changed in two
days.' And the answer was, because you have to. We're trying
to move that out to the Office of Personnel Management,"
Zakheim said.

NEW RELEASES AND ACQUISITIONS

The early history of the National Reconnaissance Office is
examined in new detail by Jeffrey T. Richelson in a National
Security Archive monograph entitled "Civilians, Spies, and
Blue Suits: The Bureaucratic War for Control of Overhead
Reconnaissance, 1961-1965" here:

In recent years, a more standardized classified document
marking system has been adopted by U.S. intelligence and
defense agencies. The development and application of that
system are described in "Intelligence Community Classification
and Control Markings Implementation," a 1.5 MB PowerPoint
document available here (thanks to B):

Director of Central Intelligence Directive (DCID) 6/9 on
"Physical Security Standards for Sensitive Compartmented
Information Facilities" was adopted on November 18, 2002, and
replaces the former DCID 1/21. A copy is available here:

Senators John Edwards and Charles Schumer last week introduced
a bill to provide access to classified information on
terrorist threats to qualified State and local government
personnel. See S. 266, the "Antiterrorism Intelligence
Distribution Act of 2003," here:

"Left-wing extremism continues... to be a potential threat to
U.S. government agencies," according to an assessment
performed for the Department of Energy Office of Safeguards
and Security in April 2001. See "Left-Wing Extremism: The
Current Threat" here (thanks to MJR):